


Follow My Lead

by furubaish



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket (Anime 2019), Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Mild Language, Mutual Pining, Pining, True Love, grumpy kyo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 04:20:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19738201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furubaish/pseuds/furubaish
Summary: A take on what the rehearsals for the Sorta-Cinderella play might've been like.Kyo is grumpy and pining.Tohru is enchanting and in love.Everyone just wants these idiots to get together already and shenanigans ensue.(Manga spoiler warning)





	Follow My Lead

I

“If I didn’t know better, I’d call you a creep.”

It was thus that Kyo was rudely shaken from his reverie for which he had been (in his opinion) most excellently , sneakily positioned for the last ten minutes, undisturbed.

He looked up and saw Haru staring at him unimpressively while leaning against the wall, mirroring his own stance.

“What the fuck are you talking about, Haru? And why are you sneaking up on me like that? This isn’t even your classroom.”

Presently, he was standing in a part of the main school hallway that ran from one end of the building to the other, so technically Hatsuharu was not in his classroom. But then, neither was Kyo.

The hallway was bathed in a soft glow from the waning afternoon sun. Most of the student body had gone home already, save those who remained behind in preparation for the day of the school play.

“Sneaking? I was just walking by when I spotted you leaning into the shadows like a thief. But now I see I was wrong. You’re just staring at Tohru-kun,” he extolled and nodded his head in the direction of the classroom.

“I was not staring!”

“Ogling, then?”

“It’s the same thing!”

“So you were, in fact, ogling Tohru-kun? Kyo, I never thought you so depraved… I’m sure she’ll let you kiss her if you just ask. She seems rather keen on you too, from what I can tell.”

By this time Kyo’s face had turned from a bright pink to a deep crimson and words seemed to rise in his throat but sputter to nothing on his tongue. He had been caught. For he was indeed looking at Tohru through the large classroom window.

She was in there with the rest of the participants of that damned school play. He looked down at the crumpled script in his hand, the one she’d handed to him the day before. He had been gathering his resolve to enter the classroom. Or perhaps debating what he had to lose if he failed to show up. At the same time, Tohru flitted in and out of his field of vision through the window. Sometimes flanked by one of her friends, sometimes alone. She had the script in her hands too and would turn the pages absentmindedly every now as she cast worried glances towards the wall clock. He knew who she was waiting for and whenever she glanced up to check the time, he felt it tug at his heartstrings. He drank in her features-the furrowed brows, her almost sighs, her bitten lips… He dared not admit it to himself but his heart thrummed faster each time, and he felt a dim, smug sort of satisfaction in his gut.

But it was an ugly thing, and he berated himself for it moments later. Before Haru arrived, he was in the midst of an internal battle with himself. To go in and be next to her, warmed to his very core by her presence, or to desert her and leave her waiting, knowing he might be cruelly toying with her heart.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snapped.

Haru looked at him for a long time and for a moment Kyo steeled himself to hear something cutting. But he only raised a hand which Kyo regarded with suspicion. He placed it on his shoulder with more gentleness that he was expecting.

“Kyo, if you don’t live a little now, you’ll regret it later,” he said sagely before pushing himself off from against the wall.

“Now _I_ don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kyo huffed. He felt his throat constrict as the words left him. He coughed and looked away. _Live a little? What’s that supposed to mean any way? I can’t just go up to her and ----- I can’t even think about it!_

“Pining from a distance won’t do,” Haru concluded.

“Haru, if you don’t shut up about pining, I’ll punch you into the sky.”

Haru sighed.

“In any case, Kyo my dumb friend, aren’t you supposed to be _inside_ the classroom in order to rehearse with the rest of them?” he questioned.

“Yeah yeah… this dumb play. I don’t even know why I’m in it…” Kyo grumbled beneath his breath, twisting the script in his hands in frustration. He had read through it the night before. It was marked all over in Tohru’s handwriting, with little notes and suggestions. She had even highlighted all his lines for him. He felt a warmth twisted in guilt in the pit of his stomach at the thought of her hunched over her desk while waiting for him, jotting down notes and highlighting so he wouldn’t have to. So he’d want to be there. So he’d show up.

He untwisted the script and flipped it open to look for her handwriting in the margins. She wrote in small, bubbly cursive letters, like a little girl’s conscientious handwriting. He had studied it enough times to recognize the particular way she twirled the loops of her her g’s and y’s. He flipped to the last page. There, she had scribbled her name absentmindedly, probably while waiting for him to return so they would walk home together.

 _Tohru Tohru Tohru Tohru_ in endless loops.

It seemed right, her name all over the page. A sad little cat was doodled into the corner, licking its paw.

“Really? You don’t know?”

Haru’s voice broke his train of thought and the smile vanished from Kyo’s face.

He regarded Kyo with a raised eyebrow and then turned toward the window. Inside, the sound of many voices could be heard, excited and laughing. And if he strained his ear just so, he could make out the sound of her voice amongst the din. The gentle tenor of her speech, her nervous tinkling laugh. She was in there, presently away from view and probably rehearsing her lines at the back of the class with her friends.

Of course he knew why he was in it.

“Damn it all!” he growled as he gathered his resolve and took two steps that placed him in front of the door. He turned the door knob.

“Just remember, don’t look too miserable, otherwise Tohru-kun will worry.”

Anger flared in him like a whip. Kyo whipped his neck around to spit out a biting retort but at that moment, a hand with immaculate purple nail polish grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him inside the classroom. His last view was of Haru waving merrily at him and then the door slammed shut.

“So! The prodigal son arrives! Is this what you call being on time Kyon Kyon?? You’re a full half hour late!! Is this a joke to you?! Do you know how hard the rest of us have been working at this?! You selfish moron!”

“Aaaarghh!” Kyo gasped for breath through the chokehold she had on him. “Let---me---go—you Hag!!”

“Uo-chan! Kyo-kun looks like he’s not breathing, please let him go!”

“Aaah, okay Tohru… But only for you.

Otherwise this dimwitted carrot- head deserves no mercy!” She let him go with a shove walked away in disgust.

Kyo coughed and gulped in deep breaths, massaging his neck. He straightened up and met Arisa’s glare. She cast him a look of supreme annoyance before harrumphing and sitting down on the nearest seat. He knew he deserved it.

“Are you okay, Kyo-kun? Can I get you some water?” Tohru had walked up to him and was looking at him with tearful concern.

Kyo suddenly felt ashamed. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

“I’m fine. I—I’m sorry for being late. I know I told you I’d try harder from now on and I-“

“Ah, no! It’s okay! I understand. Thank you for coming! I’m so glad you’re here, Kyo-kun!” She glowed up at him brightly, all sincerity and smiles. From behind her, he could see Uo still shooting him death glares and Hanajima to the side was regarding him with her usual coolness.

Tohru came up to his side and declared, “Now that our Prince has arrived, we can really begin!”

Something about the way she spoke those words made his cheeks burn. He turned and fixed his gaze on her.

“Lead the way, then… Princess…” he muttered beneath his breath and smiled mischievously before bopping her lightly on the head with his fist.

Tohru sputtered, “Act-actually, Hana-chan is the Princess, I’m only the step-sister if you see the script here, it says it all clearly…”

She was flustered and blushing madly, hurriedly flipping the pages the script. He interrupted, “I know what it says. I read it all last night. I particularly enjoyed the part where you doodled your name all over the last page.” There was a slight one-sided upward tug to his smile rendering it almost roguish.

“Ahaha! I’m so sorry about that, Kyo-kun…” There was a bead of sweat running down her face and a redness under her skin that reached the roots of her hair.

“Don’t be,” he urged softly.

She stopped fumbling with the script and looked up at him, something clearing in her eyes. He looked back at her, keeping his gaze steady.

He reached up caught a stray strand of hair and brushed it from across her face, his fingers gently touching her cheek before he tucked it behind her ear, his hand coming to dropping to his side.

His fist clenched and released.

A faint pink hue settled across her cheeks and her eyes looked up at him questioningly at the sudden gesture. There was an apology forming at the tip of his tongue by way of habit. But he swallowed the words before they fully formed and left his lips. Instead, he gazed back intently at her surprised look.

 _Well, here I am,_ he seemed to say. He was gazing deep into her eyes, the warm brown depths of them never failing to take him in and making him forget where he was. He was Kyo and she was Tohru and that was all he could remember. That and the way her smile pierced and healed his heart, and how the look in her eyes said more than words could ever translate. There were things they told him every day, things he had to unlearn every night before going to bed, convince himself he’s imagined it all. But the next day, there’d she be again- casting a spell with her smile and the way she’d say his name and his heart would sing.

“Oe! Lovebirds! Get over here!” Uo’s voice brought them back into focus in their present environment. She was snickering and Hanajima was smiling quietly at them in a knowing way. The rest of the cast and crew too, was watching them and had gone unusually quiet. They both turned bright red and Tohru’s hair stood on its ends. Kyo glared at Uotani from over Tohru’s head.

She grinned back at him and winked.

“We’ve got a play to put together! Our Prince has finally cometh!”

II

_“You want me to what?!”_

**Author's Note:**

> So a while ago I asked for Kyoru writing prompts on tumblr and my friend aryllahiruelric kindly suggested something to do with the Sorta-Cinderella play that happens in the later chapters. Twas a daunting task, because that part of the story is so so funny and just so GOOD that I didn't even know where to begin. Well, tonight, inspiration struck and so begun we have. This is just going to be me letting loose and having fun with the characters. I hope whoever tags along enjoys it too! Thanks for reading, folks!!


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